HP could launch a WebOS tablet in early 2011

If you’ve been holding out hope that HP would launch a tablet running Palm’s WebOS software before the end of the year, Engadget has some dream-crushing news. HP officials are reportedly telling employees that the upcoming WebOS tablet — which may or may not be called the PalmPad — will be out in the first quarter of 2011.

I suppose that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After all, HP just recently finalized its acquisition of Palm, and it takes a little while for two large companies to merge their operations and technology.

In the meantime, it looks like HP’s Windows 7 slate could hit the street soon, but the company is reportedly only targeting that model at enterprise users.